More and more authors and publishers of music have registered with SUISA in recent years. The number of new registrations has been rising steadily, and there is little sign of the growth slowing down. As a collective management organisation, we regard this reception with a certain pride and consider it as positive feedback on the entrepreneurial efforts made by the administration: SUISA is well-known, popular and meets the demands of rightsholders with its quality of service.
Just like every medal has two sides, there is also a downside to this positive development: The influx of newly registered authors and publishers means additional administrative work, which must continue to be managed efficiently with limited resources. After all, the increase in new admissions does not necessarily result in an increase in income.
The fact is that many principals only reach low revenue levels over a longer period of time, but still generate high expenses because they have many questions and register works that are not used. In these cases, the costs incurred are disproportionate to the revenue. This culminates in our introduction of different service levels for our services to members and principals.
Our core portfolio is the same for all, individual services different
Members who generate a minimum turnover of CHF 3,000 and are therefore entitled to vote at the Annual General Meeting will continue to have access to personal services, e.g. by telephone, in addition to the services mentioned below via the online member portal “My Account”.
Inquiries from principals, on the other hand, are answered primarily via the online member portal (“My Account”). In the portal “My Account”, the following activities can be carried out independently and at any time from the comfort of your home:
- Managing personal data, such as address and name changes
- Registering works and receiving the confirmation of registration afterwards
- Amending work details, e.g. new titles
- Registering sub-publishing contracts
- Inspecting all distributions and settlements
- Calculating individual work remuneration
- Creating individual reports according to defined selection criteria
- Answering general inquiries
What is important in this context is that both categories, members with active and passive voting rights, but also principals will continue to enjoy the main services of the core business: The process from licensing through to distribution is equally available to all rightsholders. This means that all members and principals will continue to benefit from SUISA’s efforts to collect copyright royalties for the use of music and then pass them on to the appropriate rightsholders.
New structure of the membership department from 2023
At the same time, we are also changing the structure of our membership department as of 2023. Currently there is an authors’ and a publishers’ team; we are going to form the new teams “Member Services” and “Repertoire Management”.
The “Member Services” team is going to be in charge of the following tasks:
- Admission of authors & publishers, terminations, change of CMO, legal successions
- Order of contractual relations
- Support and advice for members regarding SUISA, membership, general questions about the music business
The “Repertoire Management” team deals with:
- Works and sub-publishing documentation of SUISA members
- Support and advice for members regarding work documentation, work registration (“My Account” / CWR), distribution rules
In this reorganisation of the membership department, we are focussing even more on the competencies of our employees, are optimising work processes and thereby once again increase the quality and efficiency of our services.
